Think up rules and solutions to common guild issues before they come up. That way, you'll be praised for your forward planning, and people will give you more wiggle room when the more esoteric stuff comes up and you have to think fast.
Things you should have at least a rough idea of how to handle before you try to have your guild taken seriously:
1. What qualifies as troublemaking in your guild and how you will handle it. The common-sense Anti-Jerk Countermeasures are often a given, but you may want to outline it. (i.e., if someone is simply douchebaggy but breaks no listed rules, there will come a point where you ought to pitch him anyway. Your guild, frequently, will love you for this. So long as you are clear and open about the whys and hows of it.)
2. What roles your guild officers will have and the permissions they will need to accomplish it. (Your initial outline will almost never be the final one, adaptability is a strong point of many surviving guilds)
3. What your bank setup will be like and the permissions that will be made available. (See 2.) This includes how you will handle rare and glorious treasures that your bank may begin to hoard.
4. If you are a raiding guild:
a: LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY, LOOT POLICY. This will also adapt over time, but you need to have a program in place before you first set foot in MC, Kara, or Naxx. Be it DKP, SK, or a simply handled /roll system, you need to know what you're doing, and you need your officers to know what they're doing. Remember to send out this information to your raiders regularly, because if you don't, sooner or later, someone may miss out on something useful because they didn't catch the loot policy.
(I had this happen a couple weeks ago and I felt horrible about it - the player in question was not a case of 'READ THE FAQ!', it was a case of needing to post reminders at some point and I hadn't)
b: Raider requirements, and what happens if they are not meeting them. This, like 1., is where it will occasionally suck to be you or an officer. Nobody likes telling people that they have a problem, but if you wimp out on it too much, your team will suffer for it. Remember: Criticism is only useful if it is helpful and will guide your team member towards improvement. Simple 'Your DPS sucks' isn't going to fly. You need to be able to inform them why, ensure that it isn't simply a case of needing to toss more gear at them, and offer talent/rotation suggestions. This is where class officers and a good list of useful sites will help.
c: At least a rough idea as per raid scheduling. "O HAY GUYZ, CAN WE DO SUMTHIN ON SAT??" is less optimal. The game itself has calendar client available for use. I'll get to advanced options in a post about websites.
5. You know I'm forgetting things. Which leads to a handy suggestion for any guild leader: Keep a notepad open on your computer and tap down things/suggestions/to dos as they occur to you. (this is one of those BS common sense suggestions that crop up in every weak tutorial, btw)
1.29.2009
1.24.2009
Management Tools No One Tells You About
So you've got a guild. And you're the boss. WHEE! You can do whatever you like! Except for that part where you have no idea what you're doing!
Turning in your guild charter provides you with no manual whatsoever. You may find yourself puttering with your guild roster with no discernible clue as to what you are trying to accomplish. Things the Guild Charter Guy does not tell you:
Ranks: You will start with a handful of pre-set ranks. You can rename them and you can expand them at your discretion. You can then also decrease them, but only back to the default numbers, and only if there is no guild member sitting on the rank you want to delete. You do NOT have to use all these ranks right away. Each rank will need its permissions set - but for your own, they will all have the barest minimum of privileges. I will discuss these further in an upcoming 'How to Build a Guild' post.
Guild Info: When you first examine your shiny new roster, you'll see a Message of the Day space that you and you alone (until permissions are changed) can set. You will also see three other tabs you can play with, including Guild Info. This is a notepad for you to place info in. I recommend a brief outline of your rules (You... do have rules, right?), website info, vent info where applicable, and other useful trivia.
Guild Info's window also links to another FASCINATING tab that you should utilize right from the start... assuming you know about it. That is the tab called 'LOG.'
LOG's purpose is not immediately clear - you may look at it and assume it does something useless, like log the guild info's useful trivia into a notepad doc or something (It's what I thought at first until it was pointed out to me by an officer... two months after guild creation. *shame*). Far from it - LOG is critical to guild management. This tab will track who is invited to the guild, who has been promoted/demoted, who has gquit, and who has been kicked. It is finite, so you have to peek at it regularly to keep up on the news, but it is extremely useful if you allow open recruitment privileges or permit your officers to handle any rankings or removals. I LOVE THIS TAB.
Officer notes: You will, as GM (and potentially any officers, should you set the permission) be given access to another tiny notepad for each member that joins. They will have their own note (and I suggest allowing them read/write access, so long as they behave), and now you have another one. This is great for tracking alts, marking who's being a potential problem, or who needs a chat on some varying topic.
As you expand your guild and its amenities, you will inevitably begin working with the Guild Bank. This also has its useful if obscure tabs, and there are settings for it that you access from your management button on the bottom right of the Roster window.
When you open up a bank or any bank tab - at first, you will likely have one - you will see a set of buttons along the bottom. One will show you the contents. Easy. Another will - I love this, and you will almost never get anyone to read it - allow you to write bank tab information. While you will be able to give each tab a title and distinct icon to help clarify what each tab is for, you can outline more information for each tab in the Info note.
The last tab is also critically useful to you, and that is another Log. Yay! This will tell you who's withdrawing or depositing and, roughly, when, with a limited amount of entries. There will also be a log available for the gold withdrawal option, again, with a limited amount of entries. These are wonderful tools when trying to track who may be overusing guild repair or who's snagging stuff they shouldn't (course, you have permissions set, right? RIGHT?).
There is YET ANOTHER magnificently useful aspect to this bank log that no one will tell you about - go to the Armory at Blizzard's site, log in, and find your guild. You will see tabs available to you that allow you to see bank contents and allows you to access the bank log without logging into the game. But hark! What's this? It's a FULLY FUNCTIONAL bank log that allows you to filter by tab, by date, by guild member, and it goes back weeks to months!
Got a guy you've been suspecting of overly sucking off the bank repair teat for longer than you've realized? Gotten frustrated because your bank log ingame has only gone back to Wednesday? Hop onto the site, filter him down, and tally it up. Holy crap, that's useful.
And of course, /officer chat, or /o. This will be more useful once you actually HAVE officers, but wow, it's nice to have your own little space to discuss management. Try to not overuse it, however, and separate yourself off from /gchat too much. Also, ALWAYS doublecheck to ensure that you are posting to /o when that is your intent. You will make a mistake at least once. Try to not make it a woeful one.
I will expand on how to use and set up some of these tools in the upcoming post about actual guild creation.
Turning in your guild charter provides you with no manual whatsoever. You may find yourself puttering with your guild roster with no discernible clue as to what you are trying to accomplish. Things the Guild Charter Guy does not tell you:
Ranks: You will start with a handful of pre-set ranks. You can rename them and you can expand them at your discretion. You can then also decrease them, but only back to the default numbers, and only if there is no guild member sitting on the rank you want to delete. You do NOT have to use all these ranks right away. Each rank will need its permissions set - but for your own, they will all have the barest minimum of privileges. I will discuss these further in an upcoming 'How to Build a Guild' post.
Guild Info: When you first examine your shiny new roster, you'll see a Message of the Day space that you and you alone (until permissions are changed) can set. You will also see three other tabs you can play with, including Guild Info. This is a notepad for you to place info in. I recommend a brief outline of your rules (You... do have rules, right?), website info, vent info where applicable, and other useful trivia.
Guild Info's window also links to another FASCINATING tab that you should utilize right from the start... assuming you know about it. That is the tab called 'LOG.'
LOG's purpose is not immediately clear - you may look at it and assume it does something useless, like log the guild info's useful trivia into a notepad doc or something (It's what I thought at first until it was pointed out to me by an officer... two months after guild creation. *shame*). Far from it - LOG is critical to guild management. This tab will track who is invited to the guild, who has been promoted/demoted, who has gquit, and who has been kicked. It is finite, so you have to peek at it regularly to keep up on the news, but it is extremely useful if you allow open recruitment privileges or permit your officers to handle any rankings or removals. I LOVE THIS TAB.
Officer notes: You will, as GM (and potentially any officers, should you set the permission) be given access to another tiny notepad for each member that joins. They will have their own note (and I suggest allowing them read/write access, so long as they behave), and now you have another one. This is great for tracking alts, marking who's being a potential problem, or who needs a chat on some varying topic.
As you expand your guild and its amenities, you will inevitably begin working with the Guild Bank. This also has its useful if obscure tabs, and there are settings for it that you access from your management button on the bottom right of the Roster window.
When you open up a bank or any bank tab - at first, you will likely have one - you will see a set of buttons along the bottom. One will show you the contents. Easy. Another will - I love this, and you will almost never get anyone to read it - allow you to write bank tab information. While you will be able to give each tab a title and distinct icon to help clarify what each tab is for, you can outline more information for each tab in the Info note.
The last tab is also critically useful to you, and that is another Log. Yay! This will tell you who's withdrawing or depositing and, roughly, when, with a limited amount of entries. There will also be a log available for the gold withdrawal option, again, with a limited amount of entries. These are wonderful tools when trying to track who may be overusing guild repair or who's snagging stuff they shouldn't (course, you have permissions set, right? RIGHT?).
There is YET ANOTHER magnificently useful aspect to this bank log that no one will tell you about - go to the Armory at Blizzard's site, log in, and find your guild. You will see tabs available to you that allow you to see bank contents and allows you to access the bank log without logging into the game. But hark! What's this? It's a FULLY FUNCTIONAL bank log that allows you to filter by tab, by date, by guild member, and it goes back weeks to months!
Got a guy you've been suspecting of overly sucking off the bank repair teat for longer than you've realized? Gotten frustrated because your bank log ingame has only gone back to Wednesday? Hop onto the site, filter him down, and tally it up. Holy crap, that's useful.
And of course, /officer chat, or /o. This will be more useful once you actually HAVE officers, but wow, it's nice to have your own little space to discuss management. Try to not overuse it, however, and separate yourself off from /gchat too much. Also, ALWAYS doublecheck to ensure that you are posting to /o when that is your intent. You will make a mistake at least once. Try to not make it a woeful one.
I will expand on how to use and set up some of these tools in the upcoming post about actual guild creation.
Always:
Doublecheck your posts to your guild's website.
Not just for spelling and grammar, but to ensure that you are posting with the correct tone in the correct place. Do not assume you are responding to something in the officer forums. If you don't, you'll end up dropping a backhanded compliment alongside with notes for further improvement into a thread connected to a front page news article.
Luckily, I caught it 2.5 seconds after clicking 'Post Comment' and deleted it in favor of the proper, simple congratulations. Further luckily, I appeared to be the only one on the website at the time.
As a side note: Officer forums are a wonderful tool to discuss who needs improvements and how and bringing up issues the team needs to work on. I heartily support them. That said, they are not your personal blog (I break this rule occasionally, but do it sparingly), and they are not a Festivus Pole. If you have to air grievances, do it constructively. More on this in another post.
Not just for spelling and grammar, but to ensure that you are posting with the correct tone in the correct place. Do not assume you are responding to something in the officer forums. If you don't, you'll end up dropping a backhanded compliment alongside with notes for further improvement into a thread connected to a front page news article.
Luckily, I caught it 2.5 seconds after clicking 'Post Comment' and deleted it in favor of the proper, simple congratulations. Further luckily, I appeared to be the only one on the website at the time.
As a side note: Officer forums are a wonderful tool to discuss who needs improvements and how and bringing up issues the team needs to work on. I heartily support them. That said, they are not your personal blog (I break this rule occasionally, but do it sparingly), and they are not a Festivus Pole. If you have to air grievances, do it constructively. More on this in another post.
1.22.2009
Humor Aside - What gives me the right to tell you how to manage a guild?
Answer: I have the same right and ability as anyone with access to the internet and World of Warcraft does: I have a free Blogger account and a copious amount of spare time.
Further, I'm not really expecting anyone to find this blog and read it. :P
This is your one warning: This blog is not really a how-to site. It will be a record of things I have screwed up, are screwing up, about to screw up, and how I am fixing them or passing them off to someone else more qualified to fix it. There will also be discussions of other screw ups, general hilarity, topical digressions, and above all, how to continue to keep the game fun for yourself.
I am coming up on my one year anniversary as a guild leader, and I will readily confess to you: I still do not always know what I am talking about. I'm fortunate - I have a very active, very vocal officer cadre who has no fear of telling me when I'm screwing something up, or poking me when there IS something that I personally absolutely need to get done. It is this information and experience that I will be trying to post about.
If nothing else, you might get a laugh here and there. Assume I am a true guru at your own peril.
About my guild: I'm not going to share name or server details at this time, as I'd like to keep it anonymous for purposes of protecting the innocent and the guilty. We are one of those blighted 'Social-Casual' raiding guilds that the hardcore like to knock on. We field primarily 10 man teams as we have an innate fear of alliances, which meant that for the last few months of Burning Crusade, we got to know Zul'Jin very, very well. By raiding standards, we are babies. But we are babies that are being served kindly by the new expansion.
At present, we have started to regularly clear Naxx10 and basic OS, and we got Malygos to Phase 3 on our very first try, humbled only by the lack of raw DPS power. We do well on our schedule, but nor will I be squatting here claiming that the posts I make are also Godly when it comes to How To Raid.
The guild itself flourishes, despite my occasional magnificent hiccups. It is by no means gigantic, but stable. It recruits regularly, and does not enforce a hefty raiding schedule on anyone, although the officers often take it on themselves to be consistent and regular. Thus we perhaps qualify for that most dangerous of monikers: Normal.
Call us a testing ground. When I manage to explode it, which I faithfully try not to do, I will chronicle my failure here so that you may not follow my mistakes.
Further, I'm not really expecting anyone to find this blog and read it. :P
This is your one warning: This blog is not really a how-to site. It will be a record of things I have screwed up, are screwing up, about to screw up, and how I am fixing them or passing them off to someone else more qualified to fix it. There will also be discussions of other screw ups, general hilarity, topical digressions, and above all, how to continue to keep the game fun for yourself.
I am coming up on my one year anniversary as a guild leader, and I will readily confess to you: I still do not always know what I am talking about. I'm fortunate - I have a very active, very vocal officer cadre who has no fear of telling me when I'm screwing something up, or poking me when there IS something that I personally absolutely need to get done. It is this information and experience that I will be trying to post about.
If nothing else, you might get a laugh here and there. Assume I am a true guru at your own peril.
About my guild: I'm not going to share name or server details at this time, as I'd like to keep it anonymous for purposes of protecting the innocent and the guilty. We are one of those blighted 'Social-Casual' raiding guilds that the hardcore like to knock on. We field primarily 10 man teams as we have an innate fear of alliances, which meant that for the last few months of Burning Crusade, we got to know Zul'Jin very, very well. By raiding standards, we are babies. But we are babies that are being served kindly by the new expansion.
At present, we have started to regularly clear Naxx10 and basic OS, and we got Malygos to Phase 3 on our very first try, humbled only by the lack of raw DPS power. We do well on our schedule, but nor will I be squatting here claiming that the posts I make are also Godly when it comes to How To Raid.
The guild itself flourishes, despite my occasional magnificent hiccups. It is by no means gigantic, but stable. It recruits regularly, and does not enforce a hefty raiding schedule on anyone, although the officers often take it on themselves to be consistent and regular. Thus we perhaps qualify for that most dangerous of monikers: Normal.
Call us a testing ground. When I manage to explode it, which I faithfully try not to do, I will chronicle my failure here so that you may not follow my mistakes.
Bizarro World's Guide to How to Build a Guild
1. Wake up one morning and say to yourself, "Self! I want my own guild!" Make no further decisions about what you want for the guild's direction.
2. Hie thy level 23 toon off to the Guild NPC and prepare for your charter.
3. Take a last moment to mull over your guild title. Your options are bad and potentially cliche Latin or a low-caps misspelled 'homage' to an established guild.
4. Pay a bunch of random /trade people to sign your charter, none of whom you will ever see again.
5. Profit from your empty and soulless bank guild.
6. (optional) Be that one whining guy that spams /trade looking for friends to join his guild, all while being mocked relentlessly by others, some of whom are also guild-tagged with bad Latin or quasi-humorous homages.
2. Hie thy level 23 toon off to the Guild NPC and prepare for your charter.
3. Take a last moment to mull over your guild title. Your options are bad and potentially cliche Latin or a low-caps misspelled 'homage' to an established guild.
4. Pay a bunch of random /trade people to sign your charter, none of whom you will ever see again.
5. Profit from your empty and soulless bank guild.
6. (optional) Be that one whining guy that spams /trade looking for friends to join his guild, all while being mocked relentlessly by others, some of whom are also guild-tagged with bad Latin or quasi-humorous homages.
A little nugget of wisdom, before starting:
If you are not, on occasion, at odds with your raid leaders and or other officers, you're not doing it right.
If you are a guild leader, whether you also lead raids or not (I don't), you are not looking for yes-men. Or at least you shouldn't be. You need someone that's willing to kick an ass around occasionally to get something working right. At the same time, what you don't want is an excess of friction. You will not get along with everyone all the time, but at the end of the day, there needs to be a modicum of peace and order.
Your job is to accept and nurture constructive angst. Skin of teflon is occasionally necessary to further the guild. You will have moments of self-doubt and venting - if your officer cadre is solid enough, they'll know when you're just being special, give you a prop up, and then things will return to some stability.
That teflon is required so that you know, when you are at odds with your team, sometimes, you're the one that's wrong. A good team leader will suck that up, adapt, and continue on. If you cannot take criticism, step down now before you harm your guild.
If you are a guild leader, whether you also lead raids or not (I don't), you are not looking for yes-men. Or at least you shouldn't be. You need someone that's willing to kick an ass around occasionally to get something working right. At the same time, what you don't want is an excess of friction. You will not get along with everyone all the time, but at the end of the day, there needs to be a modicum of peace and order.
Your job is to accept and nurture constructive angst. Skin of teflon is occasionally necessary to further the guild. You will have moments of self-doubt and venting - if your officer cadre is solid enough, they'll know when you're just being special, give you a prop up, and then things will return to some stability.
That teflon is required so that you know, when you are at odds with your team, sometimes, you're the one that's wrong. A good team leader will suck that up, adapt, and continue on. If you cannot take criticism, step down now before you harm your guild.
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